Rock Island Mayor Randy Agnew is campaigning for the open Douglas County Commission seat currently held by Kyle Steinberg.

Agnew is in his ninth year as Mayor and has presided over tremendous growth in the 6th fastest growing city in the state and says he wants to streamline county government with similar efficiencies he implemented in city government.

Agnew says he has held the line on taxes doubled cash reserves and would bring the same fiscal approach to the board.

He visited KPQ studios for a Q & A about his campaign

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KPQ--  What specific role have you played in Rock Island's growth or record of success?

RANDY AGNEW--  Let me back up one step.  My predecessor got the sewer system put in, which helped a lot, that enabled, you know, made it attractive. Developers could build five lots per acre instead of two lots per acre on sewer. So, you know, I've got to give credit where credit's due. That helped. My first year as mayor. I knew Laurie Stimac and I'm standing in line at Starbucks and she's standing behind me with her husband, Vince.   I said to him, How come you're not building in my town?   He didn't know me but asked what's your town? I said, I'm the mayor of Rock Island. He said I wouldn't mind building in Rock Island anyway. So I hooked him up with the owner of the golf course and he had land that had been planned for a subdivision.  So I put those two together, and Vince wound up building an 80 unit subdivision, so I can take credit for that one.

KPQ--  So that was a great connection you helped make but what what do you think has been key to the 70% growth in Rock Island?

RANDY AGNEW--  A big part of it, I think, is working with the developers. And when I first became mayor, first couple of applications for subdivisions, the developers would come in, and they've got all their engineering drawings. And then the city, we'd say, well, we'd like to change this and that, which naturally they (developers) find upsetting because they have to go back and spend money for new engineering drawings. And so  we started having a pre app (application) meeting, and I said, just bring your plan in on a napkin. Let's work out, you know, all the details of what the city wants versus what you want before you spend all that money. And that has worked out really well. The other thing I did was make sure that everybody that's involved with the approval of the application is at those at those meetings, so they don't come see Rock Island, then go see the fire marshal, etc, then go see the PUD.  Everybody involved is there, so we work out all the issues one time, my engineer takes notes, and we tell them what we want, and when they meet those,  we're good to go.   The developers have really appreciated that process.

KPQ--  What improvements do you want to bring to County government that has been successful in Rock Island, in terms of how the the county serves residents overall.

RANDY AGNEW--  I think the county has done a pretty good job with the current  commissioners we have there, I hope to just continue what they've been doing for the most part, but possibly looking at implementing some of the things I just mentioned with the application process, with developers hoping to smooth that out a little bit. Currently, a developer comes in, they see the county planning department, then they got to go to Douglas County Sewer District, then they got to go to East Wenatchee Water District, and they're all separate meetings with separate requirements. And I'd like to see if there isn't a way, we could do what we were doing at Rock Island. Let's get everybody in the room at the same time, work all out all the issues at once.

KPQ--  Obviously, that streamlines the process for the builder. But does that help the economy? Does it help the economic development in Douglas County?

RANDY AGNEW--  I think it does, because it makes the process simpler, quicker, easier, instead of, again, you know, the county has their requirements, and so the developers do whatever they have to do with the engineers to meet that and then when they go to the PUD, the PUD says, well, we need something different. So now we got to go back and change all the stuff we did to meet the county and so forth. You know, likewise with the Sewer District or the water district, etc. Whereas if you get them all in the room at the same time, we work all that out at once, and that way everybody's all on the same page. So it's more efficient. Makes things, in my opinion, smoother and quicker, and helps the developers get to building houses rather than jumping through hoops.

KPQ--  What other ideas for economic drivers in Douglas County do you have?

RANDY AGNEW--  At a recent transportation council meeting, Richard De Rock, who is a Commissioner for the Port District, was talking about there are whole, whole lot more high tech businesses in this valley than even he realized, and a lot more that want to come here.  We need to make Douglas County a business friendly place.   I think it is, but continue we need to continue that and enable those businesses, high tech businesses, with high paying jobs to be able to come here.  When I was at the Chelan County Fair earlier this year, I met the general contractor for the data center for Microsoft, over by the airport.  And until I was talking to him, I didn't realize Microsoft has bought land up at Chelan and they plan on building a data center up there.  Of course, they've got the one in Malaga they're beginning.   He was saying that when all three of them are in construction, that they're going to need more electricians than all the registered union electricians currently in the state of Washington, which is a lot of high paying jobs. I asked him, Iwhere are you going to put them?   And he said, I don't know. So that's something we need to be looking at, making sure these people have a place to live.

KPQ--  What makes you an effective leader?

RANDY AGNEW--  I'm just thinking here, I'm good with people. I'm work cooperatively with people, easy to get along with for the most part.

KPQ--  What makes you the best choice for this position and the voters of Douglas County?

RANDY AGNEW--  In my opinion, it's the nine years of experience as mayor. You know, I've learned how running a government agency works. I've learned the funding processes that government agencies have to go through. In fact, I was just at the IACC conference earlier today, meeting with the tech team discussing funding for a new reservoir for the city of Rock Island.  These are things everybody learns. I've talked to multiple mayors and commissioners, and they've all said the same thing, you spend your first term just learning how things work. I've already done that. I've got nine years of experience of learning how things work. Obviously, some things at the county are different. Volume is different, but I've got the background. And with Rock Island, everybody can look at the success I've had there. It's been pretty good.

KPQ--  Do you consider yourself fically conservative?

RANDY AGNEW--  Yep, absolutely. When I became mayor, our budget was about a million dollars a year. It's now up to 2 million a year. Our cash reserves, my first year was about a million dollars. They're now almost 4 million so and we have not raised things any more than we had to. We've raised water rates, basically at the rate of CPI (consumer Price Index)  Sewer rates were a big shock for the residents of Rock Island.  When the sewer went in, they went from paying nothing to $67 a month. We have not raised sewer rates once in nine years. At some point, obviously we're gonna have to start raising those along with CPI. So I'm kind of proud of that and our connection fees. I've kept them down to as reasonable amount as I can.

KPQ--  Where can voters find more information about you and your campaign for Douglas ounty Commissioner?

RANDY AGNEW--  You can go to RA4dcc.com.  That stands for Randy Agnew for Douglas County commissioner.com

Agnew topped a field of five primary candidates and is facing Paula Lamana on the Nov. 5th ballot

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Gallery Credit: Jaime Skelton